In Treatment (2008–2010): Season 1, Episode 20 - Paul and Gina: Week Four - full transcript
Previously on "In Treatment"...
You said that ending the therapy
was the best good solution.
I said, it might be necessary for her sake.
When you say "good solution", I think
you mean a solution to your problems.
Alex, the fighter pilot, met Laura.
So, he comes back the next afternoon,
tells me that they met, and now...
and now they're dating.
You want me to talk about Laura?
What do you want me to say? That I sit
opposite her and say, "What if?"
Well, I do.
- Hi!
- Hi.
Sorry I'm late. I was, uh...
I was at the market.
Listen, would you mind putting these
in the fridge for me, please?
Sure, sure.
Fish heads.
They're fish heads?
Yeah, I'm making some chowder.
- Oh! Oh, yeah, fish heads for... yeah.
- Thanks.
S01E20: Paul and Gina, Week Four
I really like your dress.
Thank you.
And your, uh... your hair -- looks different.
- You look great, Gina.
- That's good of you to say that.
Makes you look...
I don't know, softer somehow.
Special occasion?
"Softer"... that's interesting.
- I'm going out with friends.
- Let me guess...
bunch of shrinks?
Yes and I'm gonna tell them that
you brought me two bags of fish heads.
Yes, most of them are shrinks.
And the non-shrinks will think, you're...
analyzing them, which, of course, you will be.
Do you know who, who's been
on my mind, lately?
Doris.
From the institute?
- Are you in touch?
- Well, sort of.
She's just gotten divorced... again.
She, uh, left this dentist
who was a chronic cheat,
and now she's with this
whiny, sourpuss doctor.
Such an obvious reaction.
You'd think, as a shrink,
you know, you'd be able to
avoid that kind of thing.
Easier to see patterns when they're not ours.
Or we see them, but we
can't avoid them, that's, uh...
that's worse.
You know...
Doris had a...
She had a bit of a thing for me...
back in the day.
Did she?
She used to say, she was... crazy about me.
But I never slept with her.
I always had this feeling
that if I did, she'd somehow...
I don't know -- use it against me or...
- say I was using her or something.
- She was like that -- extremes.
But hot.
Not such useful qualities for a therapist.
You don't think, anybody's a good therapist.
I'm no good either, remember?
Isn't that how we left off?
- Should we talk about our last session?
- Should we? I don't know.
I will say that it's not the first time
I've left here disappointed or angry.
If I was you, I'd look into that.
Of course, I'm angry at everything these days.
More or less all the time.
This week was particularly...
- What?
- The girl gymnast...
took a bunch of pills,
and, uh, collapsed in my office.
- Pills to get high?
- No, sleeping pills.
Tried to do herself in. Attempted suicide.
- Oh God, Paul.
- Well, sort of.
Choosing my office...
There are more efficient places
to kill yourself, I must say,
but she was acting out, and...
Got to say, it rattled me.
- She took the pills before the session?
- I had them -- really stupidly, I...
I never have pills in my bathroom,
but I'm sleeping on the couch so I'd --
brought some stuff down.
She managed to get down most of the bottle.
- Is she okay?
- She is.
I called the, uh, psychiatrist
who's a friend of mine,
and I asked him...
not to have her committed.
Do you feel pretty sure, she's safe?
I think, she would've been crushed
if she thought that I'd abandoned her...
you know, the parental figure
passing her on to somebody else.
I have a feeling that's why
she took the pills in the first place,
to kind of -- test my...
my commitment to her.
- Are you feeling guilty?
- No...
but I do regret those pills.
Well, there's always a way to kill yourself.
True. No, I don't feel responsible.
The strange thing is,
we had been making a lot of progress lately.
She told me that she'd had sex with this boy,
and he told her that she fucked
like somebody -- who'd been abused.
Amazingly insensitive, dumb kid,
trying to cover his own insecurity,
but Christ! It made me so angry.
Normally, I never say anything...
- But you did?
- I did. I called him an idiot.
How did she react?
She heard, she didn't acknowledge it.
But a moment later, she had this...
major breakthrough.
She started to remember details
of the accident.
I mean, it was a crucial,
therapeutic breakthrough.
I felt... we were really getting somewhere.
Then she just... she just upped
and went to the bathroom.
You think, you're more effective
when you're involved?
When you show a patient your feelings?
Maybe, I don't know.
But that's not what I'm...
- really saying here, Gina.
- No?
Would you stop drawing conclusions, Gina?
I'm just telling you about my week.
Let's see, uh...
In other news, uh...
Kate... took her affair to Rome this week.
When Sophie collapsed in my office,
I, uh... I yelled out for Kate...
then realized, I was alone in the house.
I was the only one there.
Did you and Kate discuss anything?
She didn't try to get me to stop her.
She just made a call to work, and, uh...
packed her bag, and off she went.
- You weren't surprised?
- Not really.
That's the way Kate has always been.
I mean, that was one of the things
I fell in love with...
the fact that she just made up her mind
and just did -- whatever she...
she was determined to do.
So unlike... my mother, you know?
I think, one of the reasons I married her
was to get back at my mother,
because it was some kind of strike
against that whole notion of...
I don't know -- victimhood.
One thing you can say about Kate is,
she never played the victim.
She makes up her mind
to go to Rome -- she goes to Rome.
It's been 18 years
since I've been alone in that house.
Rosie's away for the weekend, and...
Max is with Kate's mom.
I've got the whole house to myself.
- How is that?
- Weird.
Anyway, I'm hoping with, uh...
with my fish chowder and a bottle
of good wine, I'll get lucky.
Right.
You think I'm joking, but I do make
a mean chowder, I have to say.
I start with the broth,
then the vegetables and the filets,
I steam the leeks and, uh, the carrots...
a few other things, mix them all
together, leave it for about 20 minutes.
Delicious.
The smell always made Kate sick.
She could never stand it.
I have to say, I love it.
- Do you like chowder?
- I do.
Well, maybe I'll have a little party,
invite a couple of people over.
I could invite, uh...
I could invite Doris.
How long is it since, uh,
since you've seen her?
Oh...
The carefree days of the institute.
The good old days.
- Would you invite her husband?
- Are you kidding?
It'll say in the invite,
"No sourpusses, please."
- Just Doris Messler and you.
- And you.
I'm invited?
You can wear that dress if you want.
Oh... well, thank you,
but I think I'd just be in the way.
No, you wouldn't. You're my cover.
That's the whole point.
I'll tell her you're coming, how great
it would be if she came, too.
It would be like... an institute reunion.
And then I leave, and you're alone with her.
Perfect. It's a perfect plan. Can't fail.
You're in a chipper mood... considering.
Guess, I am.
It's nice for a change.
I miss this side of you.
I guess it's 'cause this
shitty week is finally over.
You're also showing me something.
What am I showing you?
How it feels to be with Laura.
How a therapist feels when...
a patient is flirting.
You thin, I'm flirting with you?
Well... no.
That's... the wrong word.
It's not -- it's not flirting, it's...
No, I... I'm your cover, but...
You, you're inviting me to a party
and you're... telling me which dress to wear,
and you're inviting me into your life, and
it maybe is a taste of...
of what it's like with Laura.
You know, she draws you in.
It must be flattering.
Yeah... yeah, it is.
I gotta tell you,
she's one hell of a storyteller.
Man, can she weave a tale.
She goes into explicit, vivid detail.
She spent about a half an hour,
telling me about the, uh...
about the sex that she had with Alex...
what she liked, what she didn't like,
what he liked, what she... did,
what he did, etcetera, etcetera.
Pretty vivid.
A man would have to be made
of rock -- not to react...
not to feel a little...
- A little what?
- Jealous.
Yeah.
Of course, that's what she wanted.
Was it?
I know, you think it's a problem
that I have this jealousy
over Laura's affair with Alex.
- No, not necessarily.
- Jealousy is not on your list
of reactions a therapist should have.
Or is it a list of no-no feelings?
Is that what you want from me, a, a list?
Would that make it easier?
I doubt it.
You keep putting words in my mouth.
Maybe you want me to be unreasonable,
so you have something to push against.
This topic...
This topic always brings us back
onto shaky ground, doesn't it?
What topic?
The boundaries between therapist and patient.
Teachers marry students.
There's no big deal about it.
What's the...
I mean, is it really wrong?
It's different, Paul.
I remember... Charlie, your...
your patient.
He used to call me
after sessions and he'd say,
"This 'no sex with the therapist' thing,
it's driving me crazy.
Is it for real? There's got to be a loophole.
Am I never going to get to sleep with Gina?"
Okay, let's say, I stop Laura's therapy.
Let's say, I send her to somebody else
as you want me to do.
Surely, in six months' time,
I can, I can call her up and say --
No. No, you can't.
- Then a year, 18 months, when it's cooled off.
- No, no, Paul.
There's no cooling-off period.
It's not about cooling off.
It doesn't change the dynamic.
In six months or ten years,
she'll still be a patient.
But that's just some bullshit
some lawyer came up with.
No. It's not a law.
It's beyond a code of ethics. It's essential.
It's something you carry inside you.
Can't you see that?
So, what you're saying is
that there is no conceivable
- set of circumstances in which --
- None.
Christ, you're so fucking fundamentalist.
There's a lot of people
who would disagree with this.
Then go to them.
She's 30 years old.
She's seductive, dependent, hysterical.
She idolizes you. It's classic, right?
It's textbook.
Here's a girl with damaged self-esteem --
Excuse me -- how do you know she's damaged?
You've told me, about her affair
with your other patient,
her trying to make you jealous,
her describing the sex...
how she's tried to enter your house,
how she's played all of these games
to try to get an oedipal reaction from you.
If you fall for these advances,
she won't be grateful.
She'll be shocked, rightly so.
And she'll leave you.
All of which you know, but you're ignoring it.
You want to be desired.
We all do.
But you need to remember why
Laura came to you in the first place.
So you're telling me now what's, uh,
what's wrong with my patient?
Another dissertation
on what a lousy therapist I am?
I have never, ever said anything like that.
Excuse me, you haven't?
What about that famous letter you wrote?
I carried that letter in my pocket for months.
But I do have to say that everything
I've accomplished as a therapist,
I owe to that letter, so, thank you.
You know, we're getting away
from Laura, again.
I can quote it:
"The patients were consistently... positive
about, uh, their sessions with, with Paul.
However, it became clear that Paul
was playing to their expectations.
His approach to therapy is compromised."
No, actually, what you wrote was:
"Seriously compromised
by his desire to please."
Well, that translates to me as,
"He's a shitty therapist."
I also said that you were one
of the most brilliant --
I know what you said..
You said all kinds of things.
You said that I was your favorite,
that I was the heir apparent.
Why didn't you tell me
that I wasn't good enough?
Because that's not the way I felt.
Why would I say that?
Then I could've gotten on with my work,
instead of dragging out eight years
of promises, of drum roll,
leading to the worst humiliation of my life.
You know -- Walker, even Jeffries...
they said that I was guaranteed...
to be the head of the institute.
Across the board, everybody agreed with it.
Except you.
- I didn't believe you were ready.
- Clearly, you didn't.
The way you took critique,
it made you furious.
You know, it was one professional assessment.
And you took it personally,
so personally, I had to wonder
if it wasn't an echo of an earlier rejection.
Oh please, Gina. Not this again, not --
I, I know exactly
where you're going with this.
A son who feels he's disappointed his father,
a son who feels, he hasn't lived up
to his father's expectations.
It's something you would want to address.
Please don't minimize
what you said to me, Gina.
I wasn't reacting to something
in my past in relation to my father.
One review -- drove you out of the institute.
That letter pissed on eight years of my work.
Despite it, though,
I became an excellent therapist.
And some people might say that, uh...
I became a better therapist than you.
Maybe you feel that.
Maybe, that's what this is really about, Gina.
So -- let me ask you again.
Why did you come to me -- specifically?
I suppose because I needed to...
I don't know, test myself.
I mean, I already knew before I came here
what you were gonna say about me
and Laura and Kate.
But I thought to myself, you know,
if I can withstand your...
corrosive attacks, your particular brand of...
- analytical castration --
- That sounds horrible.
Why put yourself through that?
So that I can...
trust myself, I suppose.
Trust yourself?
With what?
You know...
You said that you were writing a novel.
You know, I...
I found that kind of amusing,
to tell you the truth,
because a novel is about...
it's about complexity.
It's about contradictions,
foibles, human folly...
not absolutes.
For you, complexity is a problem,
some kind of pathology
that needs to be treated.
And you know what I find fucking
offensive, to tell you the truth, Gina?
That you think, I'm blind to a situation
as obvious as erotic transference.
Let me just tell you that I treat Laura
with the same integrity,
the same concern, the same rigor
as I treat all my patients.
I happen to like my patients.
That's the difference between you and me.
I worry about them. I identify with them.
I put myself out for them. You analyze them.
I analyze, too, but I empathize.
Let me ask you something,
I'm, I'm just curious about this...
Do you miss -- having patients?
Why?
I was never really 100% convinced,
to be honest, that you
actually like this process,
the sitting down with a patient.
That's because, in your opinion,
I have no empathy, and so,
how could I get any satisfaction from it?
I'm not saying you don't get
satisfaction from it in the same way
that a sail-maker or, or, or a chemist gets,
when they... practice their craft.
But that thing I'm talking about
that exists between a doctor and a patient...
that, that connection, that buzz...
See, I can't help but connect with...
with the person.
That's... that's who I am as a therapist,
that's my, that's my...
reward.
A while ago, before, uh,
before I started coming here...
there was...
there was a session that...
Laura -- Laura cried.
She'd never actually...
done that before, and, uh...
That's a kind of a victory, right?
It's kind of a milestone for a therapist
when you, when you get the patient
to that point where they...
where they, where they cry.
It was different with her.
There was something so...
so moving about seeing her, just...
break down like that.
In that moment, I swear...
I could've said, "Fuck it all.
I just want to be with her."
But I didn't.
I came to you instead.
I came especially to you.
I chose you 'cause I thought to myself:
"If Gina can't convince me to...
stay away, then how
am I gonna convince myself?"
It's really tough when
I'm alone with her, you know...
and she's asking me,
"Please, just be honest.
Please, tell me how you feel."
And I can't.
I guess, the reason I'm here is because...
I really want to look at this.
I want to examine it.
I want to be absolutely clear about this...
100%, that it's not...
that I'm not...
That you're not what?
Paul... you need to say it.
You need to finish the thought.
What I want...
isn't, in some way, immoral...
or...
unethical.
And that it's not abuse,
an abuse of my power as a doctor
with a patient.
I'm not pushing you out.
I'm not running away,
no matter what you tell me.
At the institute...
maybe that was hubris on my part.
I don't know, it might have been.
But I won't do that now. I won't reject you.
That doesn't mean,
I'm gonna let you do something
that you'll regret the rest of your life...
not without fighting you every step.
If it's safety you need,
this is it.
We've already crossed
lines of conduct in this room.
I'm saying that because I want you to know
how far I'm willing to go.
Whatever you tell me...
I'm here for you.
I won't abandon you...
no matter what.
I'm here.
I love her.
I love Laura.
Every word out of her mouth,
every move she makes, I just...
I love talking to her, you know --
just listening to her.
I know it's a joke, clich?...
50-year-old married man
in love with a 30-year-old.
But I want to be with her...
and I don't care what it means,
and I don't care what it costs.
I don't care.
I love her.
You said that ending the therapy
was the best good solution.
I said, it might be necessary for her sake.
When you say "good solution", I think
you mean a solution to your problems.
Alex, the fighter pilot, met Laura.
So, he comes back the next afternoon,
tells me that they met, and now...
and now they're dating.
You want me to talk about Laura?
What do you want me to say? That I sit
opposite her and say, "What if?"
Well, I do.
- Hi!
- Hi.
Sorry I'm late. I was, uh...
I was at the market.
Listen, would you mind putting these
in the fridge for me, please?
Sure, sure.
Fish heads.
They're fish heads?
Yeah, I'm making some chowder.
- Oh! Oh, yeah, fish heads for... yeah.
- Thanks.
S01E20: Paul and Gina, Week Four
I really like your dress.
Thank you.
And your, uh... your hair -- looks different.
- You look great, Gina.
- That's good of you to say that.
Makes you look...
I don't know, softer somehow.
Special occasion?
"Softer"... that's interesting.
- I'm going out with friends.
- Let me guess...
bunch of shrinks?
Yes and I'm gonna tell them that
you brought me two bags of fish heads.
Yes, most of them are shrinks.
And the non-shrinks will think, you're...
analyzing them, which, of course, you will be.
Do you know who, who's been
on my mind, lately?
Doris.
From the institute?
- Are you in touch?
- Well, sort of.
She's just gotten divorced... again.
She, uh, left this dentist
who was a chronic cheat,
and now she's with this
whiny, sourpuss doctor.
Such an obvious reaction.
You'd think, as a shrink,
you know, you'd be able to
avoid that kind of thing.
Easier to see patterns when they're not ours.
Or we see them, but we
can't avoid them, that's, uh...
that's worse.
You know...
Doris had a...
She had a bit of a thing for me...
back in the day.
Did she?
She used to say, she was... crazy about me.
But I never slept with her.
I always had this feeling
that if I did, she'd somehow...
I don't know -- use it against me or...
- say I was using her or something.
- She was like that -- extremes.
But hot.
Not such useful qualities for a therapist.
You don't think, anybody's a good therapist.
I'm no good either, remember?
Isn't that how we left off?
- Should we talk about our last session?
- Should we? I don't know.
I will say that it's not the first time
I've left here disappointed or angry.
If I was you, I'd look into that.
Of course, I'm angry at everything these days.
More or less all the time.
This week was particularly...
- What?
- The girl gymnast...
took a bunch of pills,
and, uh, collapsed in my office.
- Pills to get high?
- No, sleeping pills.
Tried to do herself in. Attempted suicide.
- Oh God, Paul.
- Well, sort of.
Choosing my office...
There are more efficient places
to kill yourself, I must say,
but she was acting out, and...
Got to say, it rattled me.
- She took the pills before the session?
- I had them -- really stupidly, I...
I never have pills in my bathroom,
but I'm sleeping on the couch so I'd --
brought some stuff down.
She managed to get down most of the bottle.
- Is she okay?
- She is.
I called the, uh, psychiatrist
who's a friend of mine,
and I asked him...
not to have her committed.
Do you feel pretty sure, she's safe?
I think, she would've been crushed
if she thought that I'd abandoned her...
you know, the parental figure
passing her on to somebody else.
I have a feeling that's why
she took the pills in the first place,
to kind of -- test my...
my commitment to her.
- Are you feeling guilty?
- No...
but I do regret those pills.
Well, there's always a way to kill yourself.
True. No, I don't feel responsible.
The strange thing is,
we had been making a lot of progress lately.
She told me that she'd had sex with this boy,
and he told her that she fucked
like somebody -- who'd been abused.
Amazingly insensitive, dumb kid,
trying to cover his own insecurity,
but Christ! It made me so angry.
Normally, I never say anything...
- But you did?
- I did. I called him an idiot.
How did she react?
She heard, she didn't acknowledge it.
But a moment later, she had this...
major breakthrough.
She started to remember details
of the accident.
I mean, it was a crucial,
therapeutic breakthrough.
I felt... we were really getting somewhere.
Then she just... she just upped
and went to the bathroom.
You think, you're more effective
when you're involved?
When you show a patient your feelings?
Maybe, I don't know.
But that's not what I'm...
- really saying here, Gina.
- No?
Would you stop drawing conclusions, Gina?
I'm just telling you about my week.
Let's see, uh...
In other news, uh...
Kate... took her affair to Rome this week.
When Sophie collapsed in my office,
I, uh... I yelled out for Kate...
then realized, I was alone in the house.
I was the only one there.
Did you and Kate discuss anything?
She didn't try to get me to stop her.
She just made a call to work, and, uh...
packed her bag, and off she went.
- You weren't surprised?
- Not really.
That's the way Kate has always been.
I mean, that was one of the things
I fell in love with...
the fact that she just made up her mind
and just did -- whatever she...
she was determined to do.
So unlike... my mother, you know?
I think, one of the reasons I married her
was to get back at my mother,
because it was some kind of strike
against that whole notion of...
I don't know -- victimhood.
One thing you can say about Kate is,
she never played the victim.
She makes up her mind
to go to Rome -- she goes to Rome.
It's been 18 years
since I've been alone in that house.
Rosie's away for the weekend, and...
Max is with Kate's mom.
I've got the whole house to myself.
- How is that?
- Weird.
Anyway, I'm hoping with, uh...
with my fish chowder and a bottle
of good wine, I'll get lucky.
Right.
You think I'm joking, but I do make
a mean chowder, I have to say.
I start with the broth,
then the vegetables and the filets,
I steam the leeks and, uh, the carrots...
a few other things, mix them all
together, leave it for about 20 minutes.
Delicious.
The smell always made Kate sick.
She could never stand it.
I have to say, I love it.
- Do you like chowder?
- I do.
Well, maybe I'll have a little party,
invite a couple of people over.
I could invite, uh...
I could invite Doris.
How long is it since, uh,
since you've seen her?
Oh...
The carefree days of the institute.
The good old days.
- Would you invite her husband?
- Are you kidding?
It'll say in the invite,
"No sourpusses, please."
- Just Doris Messler and you.
- And you.
I'm invited?
You can wear that dress if you want.
Oh... well, thank you,
but I think I'd just be in the way.
No, you wouldn't. You're my cover.
That's the whole point.
I'll tell her you're coming, how great
it would be if she came, too.
It would be like... an institute reunion.
And then I leave, and you're alone with her.
Perfect. It's a perfect plan. Can't fail.
You're in a chipper mood... considering.
Guess, I am.
It's nice for a change.
I miss this side of you.
I guess it's 'cause this
shitty week is finally over.
You're also showing me something.
What am I showing you?
How it feels to be with Laura.
How a therapist feels when...
a patient is flirting.
You thin, I'm flirting with you?
Well... no.
That's... the wrong word.
It's not -- it's not flirting, it's...
No, I... I'm your cover, but...
You, you're inviting me to a party
and you're... telling me which dress to wear,
and you're inviting me into your life, and
it maybe is a taste of...
of what it's like with Laura.
You know, she draws you in.
It must be flattering.
Yeah... yeah, it is.
I gotta tell you,
she's one hell of a storyteller.
Man, can she weave a tale.
She goes into explicit, vivid detail.
She spent about a half an hour,
telling me about the, uh...
about the sex that she had with Alex...
what she liked, what she didn't like,
what he liked, what she... did,
what he did, etcetera, etcetera.
Pretty vivid.
A man would have to be made
of rock -- not to react...
not to feel a little...
- A little what?
- Jealous.
Yeah.
Of course, that's what she wanted.
Was it?
I know, you think it's a problem
that I have this jealousy
over Laura's affair with Alex.
- No, not necessarily.
- Jealousy is not on your list
of reactions a therapist should have.
Or is it a list of no-no feelings?
Is that what you want from me, a, a list?
Would that make it easier?
I doubt it.
You keep putting words in my mouth.
Maybe you want me to be unreasonable,
so you have something to push against.
This topic...
This topic always brings us back
onto shaky ground, doesn't it?
What topic?
The boundaries between therapist and patient.
Teachers marry students.
There's no big deal about it.
What's the...
I mean, is it really wrong?
It's different, Paul.
I remember... Charlie, your...
your patient.
He used to call me
after sessions and he'd say,
"This 'no sex with the therapist' thing,
it's driving me crazy.
Is it for real? There's got to be a loophole.
Am I never going to get to sleep with Gina?"
Okay, let's say, I stop Laura's therapy.
Let's say, I send her to somebody else
as you want me to do.
Surely, in six months' time,
I can, I can call her up and say --
No. No, you can't.
- Then a year, 18 months, when it's cooled off.
- No, no, Paul.
There's no cooling-off period.
It's not about cooling off.
It doesn't change the dynamic.
In six months or ten years,
she'll still be a patient.
But that's just some bullshit
some lawyer came up with.
No. It's not a law.
It's beyond a code of ethics. It's essential.
It's something you carry inside you.
Can't you see that?
So, what you're saying is
that there is no conceivable
- set of circumstances in which --
- None.
Christ, you're so fucking fundamentalist.
There's a lot of people
who would disagree with this.
Then go to them.
She's 30 years old.
She's seductive, dependent, hysterical.
She idolizes you. It's classic, right?
It's textbook.
Here's a girl with damaged self-esteem --
Excuse me -- how do you know she's damaged?
You've told me, about her affair
with your other patient,
her trying to make you jealous,
her describing the sex...
how she's tried to enter your house,
how she's played all of these games
to try to get an oedipal reaction from you.
If you fall for these advances,
she won't be grateful.
She'll be shocked, rightly so.
And she'll leave you.
All of which you know, but you're ignoring it.
You want to be desired.
We all do.
But you need to remember why
Laura came to you in the first place.
So you're telling me now what's, uh,
what's wrong with my patient?
Another dissertation
on what a lousy therapist I am?
I have never, ever said anything like that.
Excuse me, you haven't?
What about that famous letter you wrote?
I carried that letter in my pocket for months.
But I do have to say that everything
I've accomplished as a therapist,
I owe to that letter, so, thank you.
You know, we're getting away
from Laura, again.
I can quote it:
"The patients were consistently... positive
about, uh, their sessions with, with Paul.
However, it became clear that Paul
was playing to their expectations.
His approach to therapy is compromised."
No, actually, what you wrote was:
"Seriously compromised
by his desire to please."
Well, that translates to me as,
"He's a shitty therapist."
I also said that you were one
of the most brilliant --
I know what you said..
You said all kinds of things.
You said that I was your favorite,
that I was the heir apparent.
Why didn't you tell me
that I wasn't good enough?
Because that's not the way I felt.
Why would I say that?
Then I could've gotten on with my work,
instead of dragging out eight years
of promises, of drum roll,
leading to the worst humiliation of my life.
You know -- Walker, even Jeffries...
they said that I was guaranteed...
to be the head of the institute.
Across the board, everybody agreed with it.
Except you.
- I didn't believe you were ready.
- Clearly, you didn't.
The way you took critique,
it made you furious.
You know, it was one professional assessment.
And you took it personally,
so personally, I had to wonder
if it wasn't an echo of an earlier rejection.
Oh please, Gina. Not this again, not --
I, I know exactly
where you're going with this.
A son who feels he's disappointed his father,
a son who feels, he hasn't lived up
to his father's expectations.
It's something you would want to address.
Please don't minimize
what you said to me, Gina.
I wasn't reacting to something
in my past in relation to my father.
One review -- drove you out of the institute.
That letter pissed on eight years of my work.
Despite it, though,
I became an excellent therapist.
And some people might say that, uh...
I became a better therapist than you.
Maybe you feel that.
Maybe, that's what this is really about, Gina.
So -- let me ask you again.
Why did you come to me -- specifically?
I suppose because I needed to...
I don't know, test myself.
I mean, I already knew before I came here
what you were gonna say about me
and Laura and Kate.
But I thought to myself, you know,
if I can withstand your...
corrosive attacks, your particular brand of...
- analytical castration --
- That sounds horrible.
Why put yourself through that?
So that I can...
trust myself, I suppose.
Trust yourself?
With what?
You know...
You said that you were writing a novel.
You know, I...
I found that kind of amusing,
to tell you the truth,
because a novel is about...
it's about complexity.
It's about contradictions,
foibles, human folly...
not absolutes.
For you, complexity is a problem,
some kind of pathology
that needs to be treated.
And you know what I find fucking
offensive, to tell you the truth, Gina?
That you think, I'm blind to a situation
as obvious as erotic transference.
Let me just tell you that I treat Laura
with the same integrity,
the same concern, the same rigor
as I treat all my patients.
I happen to like my patients.
That's the difference between you and me.
I worry about them. I identify with them.
I put myself out for them. You analyze them.
I analyze, too, but I empathize.
Let me ask you something,
I'm, I'm just curious about this...
Do you miss -- having patients?
Why?
I was never really 100% convinced,
to be honest, that you
actually like this process,
the sitting down with a patient.
That's because, in your opinion,
I have no empathy, and so,
how could I get any satisfaction from it?
I'm not saying you don't get
satisfaction from it in the same way
that a sail-maker or, or, or a chemist gets,
when they... practice their craft.
But that thing I'm talking about
that exists between a doctor and a patient...
that, that connection, that buzz...
See, I can't help but connect with...
with the person.
That's... that's who I am as a therapist,
that's my, that's my...
reward.
A while ago, before, uh,
before I started coming here...
there was...
there was a session that...
Laura -- Laura cried.
She'd never actually...
done that before, and, uh...
That's a kind of a victory, right?
It's kind of a milestone for a therapist
when you, when you get the patient
to that point where they...
where they, where they cry.
It was different with her.
There was something so...
so moving about seeing her, just...
break down like that.
In that moment, I swear...
I could've said, "Fuck it all.
I just want to be with her."
But I didn't.
I came to you instead.
I came especially to you.
I chose you 'cause I thought to myself:
"If Gina can't convince me to...
stay away, then how
am I gonna convince myself?"
It's really tough when
I'm alone with her, you know...
and she's asking me,
"Please, just be honest.
Please, tell me how you feel."
And I can't.
I guess, the reason I'm here is because...
I really want to look at this.
I want to examine it.
I want to be absolutely clear about this...
100%, that it's not...
that I'm not...
That you're not what?
Paul... you need to say it.
You need to finish the thought.
What I want...
isn't, in some way, immoral...
or...
unethical.
And that it's not abuse,
an abuse of my power as a doctor
with a patient.
I'm not pushing you out.
I'm not running away,
no matter what you tell me.
At the institute...
maybe that was hubris on my part.
I don't know, it might have been.
But I won't do that now. I won't reject you.
That doesn't mean,
I'm gonna let you do something
that you'll regret the rest of your life...
not without fighting you every step.
If it's safety you need,
this is it.
We've already crossed
lines of conduct in this room.
I'm saying that because I want you to know
how far I'm willing to go.
Whatever you tell me...
I'm here for you.
I won't abandon you...
no matter what.
I'm here.
I love her.
I love Laura.
Every word out of her mouth,
every move she makes, I just...
I love talking to her, you know --
just listening to her.
I know it's a joke, clich?...
50-year-old married man
in love with a 30-year-old.
But I want to be with her...
and I don't care what it means,
and I don't care what it costs.
I don't care.
I love her.